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The United States of America is in serious distress as long as a man like Donald J. Trump remains President and Mike Pence remains Vice-President; and while there are elected members of the U.S. Congress and appointed judges sitting on the U.S. Supreme Court who choose to support Trump and Pence – each who either by their rhetoric and/or their inaction are in effect, condoning the unpatriotic and dangerously treasonous actions of those men.

As Donald J. Trump sits “all alone in the White House” during what is now the THIRD (3rd) U.S. federal government shutdown this year (2018) under his administration, perhaps those of us who truly despise the man should imagine him singing the tune to the [238 year-old] song, “The Twelve Days of Christmas” as depicted in this cartoon meme I found in my Facebook newsfeed:– RobFather X

PREFACE: For those reading this article, Article II, Section 3 of the United States Constitution, requires the President of the United States to “periodically give to Congress, information of the State of the Union, and to recommend to Congress, consideration of such measures as he [the President] shall judge necessary and expedient.”

In the days prior to the Mr. Donald J. Trump’s first State of the Union (SOTU) address as president, I have heard and read comments from a number of people – both on and off social media, expressing their intent not to watch its broadcast on TV and on the internet nor listen to it on the radio. I’ve also seen a few social media political pages which outright called for followers of their page to boycott the SOTU by not watching or listening to it. The reasons for such a boycott just seemed silly to me…at least much too silly for me to repeat any of them in this blog article.
*sigh*Here’s the thing: People are free to [legally] do whatever they want, including refusing to watch and/or listen to Mr. Trump’s (or to any U.S. president’s) SOTU address. Fine. However, I refuse to partake in such willful ignorance. Frankly, as far as I’m concerned, refusing to watch/listen to any SOTU and/or to any address delivered by a U.S. president to both houses of Congress is sheer willful ignorance. People need to realize that the SOTU is not like going to or boycotting a political campaign speech by some political hopeful. The State of the Union (SOTU) is the constitutionally-mandated report to Congress – to our elected legislative representatives. No American citizen ever has to believe nor support a word of it.

You see, I see absolutely no point in not watching or in “boycotting” the SOTU – regardless of how I or anyone else feels about the person [holding the office of President] delivering that constitutionally-required important address to the full body of Congress and to the American people. Furthermore, I feel that people who choose not to listen to/boycott the SOTU address, yet at the same time, consider themselves to be so-called “woke” and politically aware of the political happenings in American government, are shortchanging themselves; possibly even setting themselves up to be judged and/or thought of as hypocritical in their so-called expressions of “woke-ness” and political awareness. [Yes, I said it!]

Still, I’m nothing if not fair. And so, I acknowledge the possibility(albeit very unlikely) that perhaps I’ve missed something in the reasoning and supposed logic some people have to boycott the SOTU. I’d be quite interested in learning what one hoped to have gained by refusing to watch/listen to Mr. Trump deliver the SOTU to Congress. To be clear, I am no fan of Mr. Donald. J. Trump. I never have been. I am no fan of Mr. Trump’s administration. And so far, Mr. Trump has not put into effect any policy which I can support. Still, I felt it was important that I watch and listen to the SOTU – just as I’ve done to many of the SOTUs delivered by Mr. Trump’s predecessors over the years.

Regardless of my feelings about Mr. Trump (and I have many which are negative), I consider watching and listening carefully to Mr. Trump address my nation’s elected legislative representatives as both an intelligent and educational benefit to my mind and to my state of political awareness. Watching and listening to the SOTU doesn’t necessarily mean that I will believe and/or support any part or all of the content of that particular address nor does it mean or imply that I support the president and/or his agenda in any way, shape, or form. It simply doesn’t.

Given the opportunity and the means, I feel every abled-bodied citizen of a free republic should always carefully watch, listen, and learn what their nation’s leader is doing, the accomplishments that leader claims to have made while in office, what that leader wants and/or plans to do while in office, and to at least consider whether to hear and/or read an accounting of such when that leader gives any mandated and official report to the elected representatives of the people of that nation. It’s important!

Thus, when the President of the United States – no matter who that person is, addresses the full legislative body of Congress – and that address is able to be broadcasted on all forms of electronic and non-electronic media, I feel every able-bodied American citizen has a certain responsibility to try to watch and listen to what that president has to say. Furthermore, I feel that each citizen who watches that important national address should also take note of various reactions made by members of Congress in attendance [at the SOTU] regarding each point made by the president – as well as to the comments made by those attending members of Congress at the completion of the president’s address.

In short, refusing to watch or deciding to boycott the SOTU address is, in a word, silly. Except for perhaps losing an hour or two out of one’s evening, I doubt that there’s anything else anyone can lose simply by watching and/or listening to the address or reading it in print later. If nothing else, there are certainly a few things one can learn.
– RobFather X

Seriously, many of you should not get so angry or upset about something over which you have no control. Within ten hours time (maybe less), some of us will be happy, some us will be unhappy and some of us will simply feel somewhere in between the two. It’s the way things are every four years in an American presidential election. If you did your civic duty of voting for the candidate of your choice then you should be damn proud of that fact! After the final and official results of the presidential election are in – and hopefully after one of the two major candidates makes his or her concession speech, you would do well to do yourselves a favor and get a grip on the reality of things and prepare to move on. To do otherwise is simply not worth the stress.

Today is Tuesday, November 8, 2016. I voted earlier this afternoon. Mind you, I had planned not to be like many other people and brag about performing an expected civic duty of every American citizen. However, since I have a few other things to say, why not make an exception and blog about it? And so, here it is.

Frankly, I couldn’t care less to learn whether Person X voted. So fuckin’ what? As far as I’m concerned, if you’re age 18 or older (especially if you’re a person of color), are not serving time in prison, not tied up in a basement, not in a coma, not living the last few hours of precious life on your death-bed, and… if you have a sound mind to understand certain things of this American country (and in the world) and can read and write, then I say that if you call yourself an American, you’re expected to vote – either by absentee ballot or in person at your assigned polling place. There’s simply no other excuse for any American not to vote in any election.

I was happy to see many fathers bring their school-aged kids with them to the polling place in my neighborhood so they could watch their fathers exercise their constitutional right to vote. However, I’m still unhappy about the fact that my polling place has always been in a church. UGH! I’ve never liked that sort of thing nor do I think it’s appropriate, especially considering that churches do not pay taxes into the community or the federal government. As an American and as a former Christian-turned-agnostic-turned-atheist, I’d like to see that shit changed and changed immediately. Until the Johnson Amendment is repealed or done away with, religious places of worship and schooling have absolutely no place in anything political. None whatsoever! Government leaders and civil service department appointees who are responsible for choosing polling places need to change that shit. Places like public schools, public libraries, school gyms, municipal administrative buildings and courts – each which are public places that is funded and supported by tax-payer money are the only and the most appropriate places to place public voting booths.

ANYWAY…
Aside from the internet, both radio and television stations and networks are delivering the expected minute by minute/hourly election updates. It’s become a bit annoying, if not stressful, to watch and listen to news correspondents and political experts sound a bit overly excited – not just about the electoral votes of presidential nominees Hillary Clinton and Donald Trumpand about the happenings in congressional races but about [what I consider] certain insignificant things. For example, the comparing of the election results of 2016 with that of four years ago and how White college-educated women voted versus how White non-college women voted. Is it me or has anyone else ever noticed that the media never measures how college-educated women – or men of color vote in elections? I suppose people in my ethnicity and those in other non-White ethnic groups aren’t believed to be college-educated or something. I dunno. I think that sort of measuring is racially and gender biased. Another annoying thing for me is getting constant text message updates on my phone from the Associated Pressand from other news sites to which I subscribe.

I’m turning it all off!

CHECK IT: Doctors often sedate or put you to sleep when performing a colonoscopy…at least that’s what the doctors at the Veterans Administrative hospital did to me when I had one a few years ago. During that procedure I don’t recall ever dreaming or feeling anything being stuck up my sexy brown ass; I just remember waking up in a room different from the one in which I was put to sleep. By choosing to ignore the presidential election results…. at least until after midnight (EST) tonight, I’m putting myself to “sleep” or in an election fight night “blackout mode”. After having to endure this awful election year of watching several presidential candidates (none of whom I ever cared for to be the next president of the United States) just insult, lie and hate on each other and, in the process of all that happening, also watch my beloved country become further divided on so many levels, I can say with complete certainty that Campaign/Election 2016 was the worse presidential campaign election period I have ever witnessed to date. I could use a few hours break from this present political reality.

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An online journal celebrating the joys of living bare with pride! This site usually publishes every Monday and Friday. I may be irreverent but I am no way irrelevant! My preferred personal pronouns are he, him, his.